In Canada, climate change is altering local environments, damaging built infrastructure, causing acute injuries during natural catastrophes, and leading to chronic health issues. Rural and remote island and coastal communities are disproportionately impacted by climate events. Climate scientists globally are calling for communities to develop resiliency plans that link social, health, and environmental considerations. In Canada, however, it remains difficult to link data sources in ways that tell a holistic story of both climate change related risks and social challenges, as well as community assets and priorities.

Cortes Island is a remote community developing a Climate Resiliency Plan which has approached us to help integrate existing data and gather new data on community priorities and experiences, carbon emissions sources and levels, climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, assets and gaps in social and built infrastructure, and collective goals for future sustainability. Working with Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI), we will collaboratively address these gaps through co-conducting an integrated community study which is informed by both knowledge held by the lead organization, and a recently completed rigorous environmental scan of academic and grey literature - which now requires ground truthing and filling in knowledge gaps through community consultations prioritizing equity-seeking individuals.